Zero Hour (episode)
Series: ENT Season: 3 Original Airdate: 2004-05-26 Production Number: 076 Year: 2154 Date: February 14 Written by: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga Directed by: Allan Kroeker With the superweapon on its way to Earth, Archer leads a small team to intercept it before it can strike; T'Pol leads the Enterprise on a mission to destroy one of the Spheres in the Expanse. Summary * A-Plot: As Commander Dolim's ship escorts the weapon to Earth, Degra's vessel and its human passengers closes in on them. Realizing that they can only destroy the weapon from within, Captain Archer urges an ailing Sato to Within two hours they intercept the planetkiller, which, along with the Reptilian warship, has emerged from the vortex and now moves in on the undefended Earth. While Archer watches in horror from the bridge of Degra's ship, Dolim destsroys an unarmed civillian research post, but before he can take his revenge, the Andorian warship Kumari under one Captain Shran intercepts and insists on lending his assistance - repaying another debt, it would seem. With the Kumari running interference, Degra's vessel closes on the weapon and transports Archer, Reed, Sato, and a team of MACOs to the weapon. While the MACOs attempt to eliminate the Reptilian engineers stationed aboard, Sato completes her decryption of the weapon's schematics and Archer begins the Inversion Sequence that will overload the weapon's power systems. As Reed sends the last Reptilian to his demise, Archer disables the probe's reactor and orders Sato, Reed, and the remaining MACOs to escape while he completes the Inversion Sequence. His plans hit a snag, however; it appears the Kumari was unable to prevent Commander Dolim himself from transporting to the weapon before his ship was destroyed. With the weapon exploding all around them, Archer and Dolim are locked in a bitter struggle - with an explosive finish. * B-Plot: Realizing that the Enterprise is en route to a primary sphere and their plans for conquest are almost ruined, the extradimensional Sphere Builders accelerate the dimensional transformation rate around that sphere. T'Pol, knowing that this could have serious implications for the crew, consults Dr. Phlox, who manages to synthesize a pathogen that would protect them from the anomaly field for fifteen minutes at most. Meanwhile, Commander Tucker informs Lt. Mayweather that impulse power will be diverted to the Main Deflector - meaning the lieutenant will have to pilot the ship by thrusters onces they've entered the anomaly field. Upon arrival, Mayweather immediately notes that the transdimensional field has expanded significantly, but it's too late to back out and T'Pol orders the ship to be taken into the field. After several minutes of fighting their way through the dimensional storm, they enter orbit around Sphere 41 and initiate a deflector pulse to take down the entire network. Unfortunately, the surrounding space had been altered sufficiently to sustain the Sphere Builders, nine of whom materialize on E Deck and begin destroying shipwide systems. Realizing that Tucker needs full deflector power to complete his task in time, Phlox recalls his studies of the Sphere Builder test subject and orders the MACOs to set their weapons to a specific rotating frequency. It works, and Tucker is able to destroy Sphere 41, causing a chain reaction that destroys the entire network, ceases the anomaly waves, and returns the Delphic Expanse to normal space. * C-Plot: After confirmation that the network has, in fact, been distroyed, T'Pol awaits at the rendezvous point for several hours before Degra's ship arrives. As Reed and Sato return to Enterprise, they deliver the bittersweet news: Earth was saved, but Captain Archer failed to escape from the weapon in time. As the crew copes with this news, the Xindi-Primate Councilor wishes them a safe journey and assures them that their captain's sacrifice will never be forgotten. Within a day, a Xindi-Aquatic vessel has delivered Enterprise back to Earth, where they attempt to contact Starfleet HQ - with no response. Scans reveal that neither the orbital platforms nor the Lunar colony exist, and when a shuttlepod is taken to investigate, it is attacked by three WWII-era US warplanes. Later, A badly burned Archer is seen under the observation of three German Nazi Generals - one of whom is not human. Background Information This episode marked the end of both the third season of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE and (presumably) the Xindi Arc. Links and References Guest Stars * Scott MacDonald as Commander Dolim * Rick Worthy as Jannar * Tucker Smallwood as Xindi-Primate * Josette Di Carlo as Sphere-Builder Woman * Bruce Thomas as Xindi-Reptilian Soldier * Andrew Borba as Xindi-Reptilian Lieutenant * Matt Winston as Daniels * Mary Mara as Sphere-Builder Presage * Ruth Williamson as Sphere-Builder Primary * Jeffrey Combs as Shran * Gunter Ziegler as Doctor * J. Paul Boehmer as Officer * Zachary Krebs as Andorian References 2161, Andorian, Brazil, Canada, Commander Dolim, Corporal Kelly, deflector array, Denobulans, Degra's ship, Earth, encryption, Hoshi Sato, Kumari, Lunar One colony, Nazi, P-51 Mustang, photon torpedo, Porthos, San Francisco, Shran, Sphere 41, Sphere Builders, Tellarite, Thermobaric cloud, United Federation of Planets, Vulcan, Vulcan (planet), Xindi Council, Xindi superweapon, Xindi-Aquatic, Xindi-Aquatic ship, Xindi-Arboreal, Xindi-Avian, Xindi-Insectoid, Xindi-Primate, Xindi-Reptilian, Xindi-Reptilian ship, Xindus, Yosemite 3 research post Previous episode: Countdown Episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise Next episode: (Unknown)